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Bottas was crap in this race. He certainly does not deserve that seat. There are hungrier drivers out there who would do much better with that opportunity than he does. It was just so painfull to watch him drive the Merc as he did.

Not saying he did a great job. He was not good at quali and suffered because of that in the race. But without Vettels stupid mistake, he would have finished one place down on Hamilton, who had a much better tyre strategy (of course thanks to better starting position, but still). Mercedes was bad on tyres this time, and Bottas suffered more. Had he not suffered the buncture in Baku, things could be very different. Just adding some realism here. And we don’t know all things happening inside the team. Is he testing some things for next year? Etc.

I see it as a mountain climb for Vettel now, in my mind the championship is done. He is too inconsistent to see him being able to mount any sort of meaningfull challenge to Hamilton over the next three races. He kind of was lucky that it is going to mexico with 5 points. It could have been much worst.

Great win for Kimi and well deserved. If Ferrari had done this kind of service for Kimi all season, their constructors tally would have been a different story. Bottas put forward a disappointingly sub-standard race today. He gave away dear constructors point with a very mediocre performance.

Verstapenn is the driver of the day for me. He came from way back in 18th, l think, to 2nd on the podium. That was a great show of driving talent.

How Mercedes got it wrong today.

The drivers championship is done. Hamilton doesn’t necessarily need anymore points either, all he needs is for Seb to not win in Mexico on Sunday and he is champion. Mercedes are racing for the constructors championship now rather than the drivers.

Not saying he did a great job. He was not good at quali and suffered because of that in the race. But without Vettels stupid mistake, he would have finished one place down on Hamilton, who had a much better tyre strategy (of course thanks to better starting position, but still). Mercedes was bad on tyres this time, and Bottas suffered more. Had he not suffered the buncture in Baku, things could be very different. Just adding some realism here. And we don’t know all things happening inside the team. Is he testing some things for next year? Etc.

I understand Bottas has had some bad luck in the first half of the season mostly. The problem is, his driving has lacked urgency or purpose in the second half of the season His job is to help Mercedes win the constructors title and he is doing a very poor job of it. It is more noticeable in this Texas race where Mercedes wanted him to step up and he simply did not show any aggression or at least show he is putting 100% effort.

I fail to see why he is in that seat when more capable and hungrier drivers are waiting in the wings.

The drivers championship is done. Hamilton doesn’t necessarily need anymore points either, all he needs is for Seb to not win in Mexico on Sunday and he is champion. Mercedes are racing for the constructors championship now rather than the drivers.

Yep. More pointedly, Vettel needs to win every race and have Hamilton not score 5 points across the next 3 races combined. Doesn't really seem within reach...

Not saying he did a great job. He was not good at quali and suffered because of that in the race. But without Vettels stupid mistake, he would have finished one place down on Hamilton, who had a much better tyre strategy (of course thanks to better starting position, but still). Mercedes was bad on tyres this time, and Bottas suffered more. Had he not suffered the buncture in Baku, things could be very different. Just adding some realism here. And we don’t know all things happening inside the team. Is he testing some things for next year? Etc.

There's not one post in the Russian GP acknowledging Bottas' performance. Yet there these fools never hesitate to lay the boots into him for any error or perceived lack of performance.

MB have already demonstrated that Bottas' results are expendable. But these idiots don't view his performance in that context. In the end, relative to championship position, he finished where he'd normally be.

In the end, only the Mercedes strategy cost Lewis the WDC. Like most, I consider the title fight over regardless, as it would be next to impossible for Seb to sweep all the remaining points while Lewis only needs to pick up a few. Lewis has kept it cool even when Ferrari had a car to challenge, and Seb started making more mistakes. As for strategy, I understood the early stop for Lewis, but failed to understand why they waited and waited when it seemed apparent that they tires wouldn't make it race distance with any pace. There were several laps where it was apparent pace was too far down to finish up near the top, and they had everyone but Kimi covered if they came in to pit for new tires. I really think Mercedes are still lacking in race strategy and have been too used to not having to consider it as strongly as the teams with lesser cars.

Watching Max carve through the field was great, and Seb was on a tear once he did his spin as well. There was enough action up towards the front that the midfield didn't get a lot of coverage. Bottas overall had a good race IMO, but he just couldn't hold that final position needed on those well used tires. I personally think he gets a lot of flack (similar to Kimi) when his race doesn't support the team leader 100%. But they are racing and being compared to the real greats, and as such don't always win the fight.

As for Kimi, freaking outstanding to see the current "old man" of F1 bag another win finally, and well deserved. He did it with his usual style, just staying cool and doing his thing. Lewis tried to close that line on the start, but Kimi wasn't going to have it, and from there his race was in hand.

The yard stick for Bottas is Rosberg, not Hamilton. Two seasons on, he is still well short of Rosberg's performance. The average gap between Hamilton and Bottas is not consistently within or equal to the average gap between Hamilton and Rosberg. From a points perspective, it is soooo gapingly obvious.

Not saying he did a great job. He was not good at quali and suffered because of that in the race. But without Vettels stupid mistake, he would have finished one place down on Hamilton, who had a much better tyre strategy (of course thanks to better starting position, but still). Mercedes was bad on tyres this time, and Bottas suffered more. Had he not suffered the buncture in Baku, things could be very different. Just adding some realism here. And we don’t know all things happening inside the team. Is he testing some things for next year? Etc.

Yep , one stop for the Merc was never going to work , as they were forced to silicone the new wheels shut before racing the car .
He never had the tools for the job .

You can call it unlucky and maybe it was, but they knew the rough roads were going to be hard on the cars - his team-mate drove a strategic rally to look after the car and finished on the podium as a...